Bleed Out 1
Title: Bleed Out
Released: 2022
Label: Merge Records
Liner Notes
(inside of CD wallet):
OUT IN THE STREETS
the mood was unstable so we found a place in the woods. On safer days, we're almost always at the clubhouse, but these were weird times, so it was good to gather and break bread. Everybody seemed to have ducked the radar during the long raids: Rochester Pete with his whitewalls and his mutton chops, Money Matt immaculate as usual, the Harleysville Kid somehow looking even better than he otherwise does, and me, blinking my eyes against the daylight. A little dirty. Something raw inside me, something brittle that didn't want to break.
Alicia the Architect pulled up in her pickup with a dog riding shotgun and an arsenal of inconspicuously housed weapons in the bed. In those cardboard-and-canvas cases lay the story of our week ahead: big scores, wild times. Right behind her was the fixer, the one they call Young Shalini, fresh talent from the mid-south, sharp as tacks, no arrests and no convictions. They say it takes a lifetime to learn how to read a rifle sight, but Young Shalini does not miss.
I'd put together the plans for the caper quickly, over the course of a month in December. I used to work this fast all the time, back in the early days: muscle memory brought it all back to me now. I studied the soldiers who'd gone before me, and I memorized their moves. We spent about half a day at the range, sizing up targets, and then we took our work out into the field: six of us, stir-crazy, starved for action, finally free to show some aces to a world that had been dealing us hard hand after hard hand for almost a year; and most noir tales like these are fantasy, but for four friends who in normal times get to play music together practically every month and who'd been forced into hiding by the circumstances of the Year of Our Lord 2020, this was the real thing. Late meals around a common table. Tales from solitary to share. Stacking our chips in secret, rolling dice until dawn. A few blazing muzzles in the wintry night. Made ready by circumstances for whatever came next, but not yet ready to bleed out.
(end of lyric booklet):
Thanks to the actors and directors in the dozen or so action movies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s that I devoured while writing these songs, a practice similar to the one I used in the early days of the Mountain Goats and which was a joy to revisit. May your blood stain the concrete, the asphalt, the Miami streets, and the carpet of the banquet room in the upstairs of a Little Italy restaurant forever.
Table of Contents
- Training Montage
- Mark on You
- Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome
- Extraction Point
- Bones Don't Rust
- First Blood
- Make You Suffer
- Guys on Every Corner
- Hostages
- Need More Bandages
- Incandescent Ruins
- Bleed Out
Training Montage
Water dripping from the pipes down in the basement
Bare feet on a concrete floor
Notches on the wall of my solitary cell
Sweat dripping out of every pore
It feels like it takes forever
It's maybe five minutes onscreen
But the horns will swell and the strings will sound
When that flipped quarter hits the ground
I'm doing this for revenge
I'm doing this to try and stay true
I'm doing this for the ones they had to leave behind
I'm doing this for you
Keep cool down in the quiet of the morning
Sweat blood when the sun comes through
Thick mist on the pond before the temple
Headed down to the final rendezvous
Everybody ready for justice
Just another mile to go
But the strings will keen and the horns will cry
When it's just me against the sky
I'm doing this for revenge
I'm doing this to try and stay true
I'm doing this for the ones they left to twist in the wind
I'm doing this for you
Mark on You
When this is over
When we leave this all behind us
Deep in the moonless night
When the rescue team finds us
It's going to get so dark for you
I'm going to leave a mark on you
Can't trust anybody
Even the tough ones crack
Train up a swordsman
To stab you in the back
I Know This Much Is True 2
I'm going to leave a mark on you
No man knows
The hour, or the day
But the mark is going to be visible
From several blocks away
Maybe you'll make it
To the far side of the hill
Maybe you will see me coming
But I don't think you will
Make peace with your family
Walk softly on this earth
Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome 3
Floor the pedal at the green light
Watch the traffic all drift right
Barrel forward unimpeded
Switch lanes as needed
Be flexible
Be unreplaceable
In a world of heavy footprints, be untraceable
Wage wars get rich die handsome
Live once
You get to pay twice
Keep your nose clean
Keep your wheels nice
Open highway on the horizon
Queen of Queens, anima rising 4
Stay independent
Make adjustments as needed
It's losers all the way down
You stay undefeated
Wage wars get rich die handsome
Wage wars! Get rich! Die, handsome!
Extraction Point
You never learn to tell the difference between
The probable projections and the best parts of the dream
The fragments that stick with you, the ones you really feel-
Those parts aren't real
But high in the cold midwestern air
They shimmer before us there
Almost out of reach but not quite
Stay up thinking about it all night
Waited so long for days like these
I'm tired of living on my knees
Pull your hair back tight, head right for the extraction point
And if you don't hear from me, let them all go free
I'm on the Kennedy Expressway at dawn
Don't know where we got this car from, I'm driving with the fog lights on
The angles you don't plan for, the things you might have missed-
Those things exist
But under the waxing winter sun
I fee like we're almost gone
Just pick a lane and drive right through
Headed off to freedom with you
Dreams of the future up in the front of my mind
Leave a couple dozen bodies behind
Pull your hair back tight, head right for the extraction point
And if you don't hear from me, let them all go free
Bones Don't Rust
Never any call for a lone wolf
You have to learn to go with the flow
But they can find a use for a scarecrow
Depending on your stomach for crows
Always going to need a little muscle
If you prove yourself worthy of trust
Your bones don't rust
Haven't checked a mirror in years
Don't need to know the bad news
There's not going to be a gold watch
After thirty years of paying your dues
Show up five minutes early as usual
Work on just a couple hours' rest
Your bones don't rust
They stay hard as diamonds
They cut through steel
They still sing when they're hungry
They ache when they're angry
Listen for the voice of the spirit
Maybe something wrong with your ears
Always on the edge of collapse now
Absolutely nobody cares
But everybody loves a professional
Not a single track in the dust
Your bones don't rust
First Blood 5
Mail-order body armor
Map to the blue-bucket mine
Guy who had a place down by the lakeside
Changing water to wine
Devestating schematics
Rough drafts of the 23rd psalm
Paul Kersey never left his apartment
John Rambo never went to Vietnam
Armor-piercing black talons
From the first production run
Nobody's seen them in the wild
Since 1991
Out in the cul-de-sacs at midnight
Where the candy for the cannons comes from
I heard Buford Pusser was dirty
John Rambo never went to Vietnam
Shall we rise to the occasion
Or go to sleep for good in the trenches
Dug in beneath a brilliant blue sky
Helmets hanging high in the branches
Empty vessels by the dozens
Diamonds in the sun
We worship nothing in the foxholes
John Rambo never went to Vietnam
Make You Suffer 5
I'm going to rise up early every day
Overcome every obstacle in my way
Keep a secret chamber in my heart clean
Polish every surface to a brilliant sheen
Remain positive and stay on the grind
And banish every other thought from my mind
I'm going to make you suffer
I'm going to make you suffer
Let your yes be yes, and let your no come from deep in your belly
I'm going to make you suffer
There was a captain many years at sea
Living the life of the sailor, rugged and free
Nothing but the sky to sing him to sleep at night
Safe in the arms of the ocean - no land in sight
Out on the waves, you try to keep warm
Nobody here to sound the alarm
I'm going to make you suffer
I'm going to make you suffer
The first in line will receive the full brunt of the blow
I'm going to make you suffer
Woke up from a dream whimpering like an infant
Over time people tell me their dreams grow distant
And they learn to love the lives they lead
No more hungry ghosts in the chimney to feed
You often hear stories like these
Someday I will see you on your knees
I'm going to make you suffer
I'm going to make you suffer
Say what you like, there won't be anybody listening
I'm going to make you suffer
Guys on Every Corner
From the front door to the drugstore
From the drugstore to the bakery
From the loading dock to the chimes of the city clock
They're about to make their play for me
But I will rise 'cause I got guys
Guys on on every corner
With your tabloid stars and your unmarked cars
With your special forces and your inside sources
With your radar fields and your riot shields
And heavy horses
I'm coming to swat you down like flies
'Cause I got guys
Guys on on every corner
They don't look so special
T-shirts and tennis shoes
Blank expressions
A couple of Chicago guys
A robust East Bay delegation
From the far ends of the earth,
They have loosely gathered
To stand in doorways
Making small talk about the weather
They look like nothing, they look like your neighbors
You won't remember their faces later
Run like rats, look to the skies
'Cause I got guys
Guys on on every corner
Hostages
There may come a day someday
When we all look back and laugh
But there's lots of noise in the break room
Nasty points on the graph
And they're breaking into the broadcast now
Special update from Action News!
Some of what you'll hear in the footage that follows
May not reflect our station's views
We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages
There's disagreements on procedure
Vocal, bitter divisions
As is often the case in situations like this one
I'll be the one who makes the final decision
Some of you have been here before
Most of you have not
Some will dewll on the details in the future
Or work to keep it out of your thoughts
We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages
If there's one thing I love, it's an infinite resource
If there's one thing worth loving, it's a surplus of supplies
There's a team up on the rooftop
Good luck to the team!
When you know you'll never make it out alive
You kind of get to live out your dream
Helicopters in the distance
Music of the spheres on the wind
It's going to be a rough ride from here down to the exit
Some might look back and laugh at the end
We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages
Need More Bandages
Stockpiles of ammunition in wooden crates
Stenciled with exotic ports of call
White rags stuffing up glass jars
Clean-burning overproof alcohol
I did not seek out the mission
But the mission found me
Twenty-one years old
I mean to learn what it's like to be free
We're going to need more bandages
We're going to need more bandages
Cheap overseas tobacco
Hidden treasures within
You can even smoke it if you're desperate
We do get desperate now and again
I am not first to follow the plan,
Just a cog in the machine
I'm just here to run interference
Dancing like a fly on the screen
We're going to need more bandages
We're going to need more bandages
More bandages - more shovels!
When the shovels break,
We've still got our fingernails
Why wait until tomorrow?
Victory awaits with the dawn!
If we all get blown to pieces,
We can leave a nasty mark when we're gone
I did not hunt down the moment
It found me in a dream
Struck down as a warning to the others
Nothing without my brothers
Incandescent Ruins
Here inside the final diorama
Charting weather patterns for kicks
There are several fairly weighty problems
I'm pretty sure the simulation won't fix
Never any better at bottom
Than the signals I'm set up to receive
Choking on the blood of the androids
Wiping off my mouth on my sleeve
Shining on the inside, maybe
Shining on the inside, maybe
Somewhere in the monument garden
Suggestions of a tunnel to freedom
Every hour the crack of the rifle
Never any guns when you need them
I've got to test my chin on the concrete
It's the only way to be sure
Only the desperate ever make it to the exit
Only the brave and the pure
Shining on the inside, maybe
Shining on the inside, maybe
Shining like a deep-sea creature
Only temporarily bearing the pressure
Sniffing at the walls of the maze
All the ancient rumors were true
You can only see the jump cuts and the closeups
You never get the aerial view
Content to maybe serve as an example
Set up a sign or two on the trail
There's a lot of things that can happen
All for the want of a nail
Shining on the inside, maybe
Shining on the inside, maybe
Bleed Out
Everytime they knock me down
I rise to my feet
Every time I take a bullet, they find a medic
To patch me up real neat
You only have to run the numbers to know
Sooner or later everybody's got to go
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
There won't be anybody waiting to rush me to safety
I'm gonna let the long night take me
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
Every bender needs a blackout
Every gauge deserves a topline
Every story needs a child who believes
The brave hero's gonna be just fine
You only have to check the papers to see
Some of these children end up just like me
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna make a gigantic mess
But it meant something important, I guess
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
Somewhere beyond imagination
Somewhere beneath the final delta
Washed up on the banks of a river at the height of the storm
Everybody seeking shelter
I'm gonna dive right in
I can't swim 7
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
There's gonna be a big spot where I once lay
And there won't even be a spot one day
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
There was a chance we'd make it through this
It's safe to say now that we missed it
And i will never lose hope, and I haven't lost hope
I'm just realistic
I will go down punching, but I will go down
And my cornerman won't bring me back around
Bled out
I'm gonna bleed out
The blood is pooling underneath me
Flowing freely from my mouth
You want to call a medivac now,
Knock yourself out
You can tell them when they get here
You tried
But the smallest hole was several inches wide
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna head into the darkness
I'm gonna head into the light
I will surrender to the slow, lurching tide
And drift off into the night
There won't be any words of wisdom from me
Just a lake of blood for all the world to see
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna tell my friends to all go to Hell
And wish my enemies well
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
If it's blood you want, I've got plenty of it -
You're gonna love it!
Bleed out
I'm gonna bleed out
Album Credits
the
MOUNTAIN GOATS
BLEED OUT
ALICIA BOGNANNO
guitar, keyboard, background vocals
JOHN DARNIELLE
guitar, lead vocal, possibly some piano
MATT DOUGLAS
guitar, keyboards, saxophone, background vocals
PETER HUGHES
bass, guitar, background vocals
JON WURSTER
drums and percission, background vocals
All songs written December 2020-January 2021
"Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome" lyrics by JD,
music by JD and Matt Douglas
Final punchline for "Bleed Out" graciously supplied
by Peter Hughes in late-night writing session
Recorded at Betty's, Chapel Hill, NC, January 2021
Engineered and mixed by Shani Ghandi
Produced by Alicia Bognanno
Mastered by Brent Lambert
at The Kitchen Mastering, Carrboro, NC
All songs © 2022 Cadmean Dawn (ASCAP)
administered worldwide by Me Gusta Music
Representation: Ryan Matteson at Ten Atoms,
to whom massive thanks are due for making this
happen with the speedy hand that these songs
seemed to be asking for demanding at gunpoint
Cover art by John DeLucca
Design by Daniel Murphy
Footnotes
- "When I was making tapes, like pre-Sweden (’93, ’94), I was in school. When you’re in school, you mess around a lot. I would get out of class and go back to my mom’s house, where I was camped out for two nights a week. I would rent some video tapes and sit there watching movies and study at the same time. I would get an idea while I was watching — the same way we were talking about grabbing lyric titles. Somebody would say something in the movie, and I’d go, 'Oh my God, this is amazing.' I’d hit pause and grab my guitar. Those songs were being written very quickly. When I started doing this album, it was just that I was watching a movie that had a training montage in it. I thought, I should write a song about a training montage. I hit pause and wrote, 'Water dripping from the pipes down into the basement, bare feet are on the concrete floor.' The next night, I watched another action movie, and I had the same thing happen. It was very much like when I was sitting on my mom’s couch in college, making what became Hot Garden Stomp, The Hound Chronicles, Yam, the King of Crops — which is not from movies but reading Achebe and Soyinka and getting ideas from West African literature." — Vulture interview, August 2022, retrieved January 2025. ↩
- Possibly a reference to the song "True" by the band Spandau Ballet, which contains an identical line and which Darnielle has written about elsewhere. ↩
- "When I write an album that revolves around a theme, it usually takes two or three songs before I notice what's going on. There's always one song that becomes the 'might as well dive all the way in' song and on Bleed Out that song was 'Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,' written while watching a French action movie way past my normal bedtime." — Facebook post, July 2022, retrieved January 2025. ↩
- Possibly a reference to the song "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" by Joni Mitchell, which contains the lines "Anima rising / Queen of queens" ↩
- "'First Blood' is explicitly about how our action-movie stories are myths." — Vulture interview, August 2022, retrieved January 2025. ↩
- "This is a song about how I, John Darnielle, the singer from the Mountain Goats, am going to make you suffer. It's called Make You Suffer." The Lyric Theatre, Oxford, MS, July 10, 2023. ↩
- The lyric booklet contains an asterisk-ed footnote for this line: "respect to David Yow." Yow is the vocalist for the band the Jesus Lizard, whose song "Seasick" includes the line "I can't swim" repeated several times. ↩